[indian21r]

Originally Posted by prasi55

Reviving this thread.

The biggest benefits of the Office 365 subscription, as I see it, are the 1TB cloud storage space and MS Excel. I am an intermediate-advanced user of MS Excel and it does have features and usability beyond what's available with the alternatives.

But for personal users who do not require that much cloud storage or MS Excel, it seems any of the free alternatives would work. Is it worth paying close to INR 7000 per year? This number will only increase in the coming years.

office 365 Family Plan is for 6 users and super cost effective too. Come to around 600-800 per user. I have been using it for a few years now.

[prasi55]

Originally Posted by indian21r

office 365 Family Plan is for 6 users and super cost effective too. Come to around 600-800 per user. I have been using it for a few years now.

Thanks a lot. Yes, it makes total sense if you have 4-6 people to share the subscription.

[adisan]

Originally Posted by EightSix

I recommend they look at WPS Office

I second this. I got WPS Office pre-installed on an Android, and found it pretty good.

Nowadays I am using WPS Office in a new laptop, and it works fine for most regular use cases with docs and excel files. I have tried other alternative software but found them to struggle with some aspects.

[GJ01]

I have been using MS Office / Office 365 all these years. My usage of MS Word is intermediate, while that of Excel is medium (Pivots, formulas, Macros etc) and PowerPoint would again be in medium usage.

I was told that in Google Docs, one does not have equivalent functions of Pivots, complicated formulas like XLOOKUP, SUMPRODUCT, etc. Is that true? For any office productivity suite, I would guess some of these capabilities would be a must for medium to advanced users.

Those of you using products other than Office Suite can you plz share your experience.

[TorqMaster]

I am a heavy user of MS Office products and have the regular package, not the subscription.

Question-My Excel use involves sizes of 15MB and above. Excel sometimes struggles to keep up since I use a ton of formulae for about 18k rows across multiple columns. Can libreoffice keep up with such load if I use its offering?

[anuragn]

I always buy laptops for personal use with lifetime MS Office bundled along so I don't need multi-user licenses. It is a more cost effective solution than taking Office 365 subscription.
On the other hand, my company laptop comes with Office 365.

[prasi55]

Originally Posted by TorqMaster

Question-My Excel use involves sizes of 15MB and above. Excel sometimes struggles to keep up since I use a ton of formulae for about 18k rows across multiple columns. Can libreoffice keep up with such load if I use its offering?

I've read that Google Sheets struggles with more than 10K rows and that Excel is better. I installed LibreOffice recently and am finding it to be surprisingly good. I'd be willing to try some sample data with 18K rows if you can share some. I can create dummy data with 18K rows but without knowing the nature of the ton of formulae you've added, difficult for me to say whether LibreOffice can keep up.
As an aside, although I love MS Office and have extensively used its different features, I fail to understand why it's this popular -- given it's an intermediate format (e.g. docs processed in MS Word are anyway printed to PDF or some other output format, why so much addiction to an intermediate file format that's not open and not entirely compliant with open document standards?)

[NetfreakBombay]

Originally Posted by GJ01

Pivots, complicated formulas like XLOOKUP, SUMPRODUCT, etc. Is that true? For any office productivity suite, I would guess some of these capabilities would be a must for medium to advanced users.

Google sheets does not support XLOOKUP and similar functions these as of now.

Originally Posted by TorqMaster

Question-My Excel use involves sizes of 15MB and above. Excel sometimes struggles to keep up since I use a ton of formulae for about 18k rows across multiple columns. Can libreoffice keep up with such load if I use its offering?

It probably wont. Since it is free, easy to give it a try though.

[ValarMorghulis]

I have an Official MS Office standalone subscription for one device (installed at my home computer).

Recently I saw an advert on FB regarding official MS Office 2019 license for Rs. 699/- only (one of the many ads that promise a life time key for prices ranging from 499 to 799). I thought why not check this out, so went to the site advertised on FB (using a VPN through the iPad), paid only through UPI and a got a license key.

Interesting things noted:
1. The license isn't on my name but in some company's (Keith Inc.)
2. The login details were displayed on the screen and immediately asked to reset the password
3. A bold underline statement stating that if the password is forgotten, it cannot be retrieved and license will be lost forever
4. All features are present in the suite (including OneDrive) with the official name as Keith Inc. and email as vip9xxx@vip.online

I wonder how do they manage this to work. Since this experimental purchase I now see a deluge of such adverts on FB now all ranging for prices less than a thousand and with the same caveats.

I still prefer to use my official MS Office Subscription for all my work.

[deathwalkr]

Was using a home edition version for my office use. Excel was the key requirement. Then got one more for my daughter. Now she requires Access and my office version is also outdated so might bite the bullet and get the subscription since in a few years my Son will also require MS Office products.

Sigh, i hate subscriptions to software and apps.

[anivy]

Microsoft is coming up with a new Microsoft 365 Basic plan from 30/January/2023 priced at $2 per month or ₹125 per month in India based on the fact that existing "OneDrive Standalone 100GB" subscriptions priced at ₹1,499 per year will be transitioned to the Basic plan.

A couple of limitations:
1. Storage space only 100GB
2. Cannot install Office apps; only online access

Source

[DigitalOne]

Originally Posted by anivy

A couple of limitations:
1. Storage space only 100GB
2. Cannot install Office apps; only online access

Online access to Office apps is free now and will continue to be free. Many people don't know this. Of course, the online versions are not as feature rich as the installable versions but are pretty good for all basic stuff.

[cpbopanna]

Looking to purchase an official version of Office 2021 Professional Plus. I need to use Word, Excel, PowerPoint and Outlook. I do not require Access or Publisher.

The MS official website talks about a price close to 45k which is way beyond my reach

And I am not a fan of subscription based Office 365

Any leads on availability of Office 2021?

[Dry Ice]

Originally Posted by cpbopanna

Looking to purchase an official version of Office 2021 Professional Plus. I need to use Word, Excel, PowerPoint and Outlook. I do not require Access or Publisher.

The MS official website talks about a price close to 45k which is way beyond my reach

And I am not a fan of subscription based Office 365

Any leads on availability of Office 2021?

This version seems to be around 10k? Haven’t purchased it myself though, so can’t say if there is some caveat later in the purchase flow.

Edit: This version also bundles outlook, in about 28k.

[Chetan_Rao]

Originally Posted by cpbopanna

Looking to purchase an official version of Office 2021 Professional Plus. I need to use Word, Excel, PowerPoint and Outlook. I do not require Access or Publisher...

Pro Plus is sold only via volume licensing, the highest individual edition you can get is Pro. For the apps you've listed, Home & Student Edition is a far cheaper option at about INR 9k+taxes for a perpetual license.

Do note, the one-time payment perpetual license options get only limited feature upgrade support, and no edition upgrades.